President Muhammadu Buhari on
Wednesday secured the support of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, for the
building of the 3,050 megawatts Mambila hydroelectric power project.

The Senior Special Assistant to
the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a
statement from Beijing, China, where Buhari met with Jinping on Wednesday on
the sidelines of the China-Africa Cooperation summit.

The two countries also signed
agreement on the sum of $328m for the Information and Communication Technology
Infrastructure Backbone Phase II (NICTIB II) project.

The concessional loan agreement
between Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) was
signed by Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Kemi Adesoun and Wang Xiaotoa,
Director-General, International Development Agency, in the presence of President
Muhammadu Buhari and President Xi Jinping of China.

Buhari noted that the Mambilla
project remained a key priority to Nigeria even as he sought the support of the
Chinese government for four airport terminals as well as the Abuja light rail
project.

His statement read, “In the past
24 months, the Chinese government has provided humanitarian aid to our
conflict-affected areas, scholarship to Nigerian youths, military training and
security support to our personnel and agricultural modernisation training.

“Mr President, as we celebrate
these successes, I would like to once again solicit your support for the
Mambilla hydropower project, which remains a key priority for my government.
Our hope is to fund the project with concessionary loans from China as an
alternative funding arrangement will adversely impact the project’s viability.

‘‘We have been informed that our
submission on this project is undergoing assessment by the relevant Chinese
agencies. We hope with your kind intervention, this assessment will be
expedited. Your Excellency, Mambilla is Nigeria’s equivalent of the three
gorges dam. My wish is that you join me for the groundbreaking ceremony of this
project in the not too distant future.

‘‘The inclusion of this project
in the FOCAC Action Plan 2019 to 2021 will go a long way in supporting our
efforts to rehabilitate and resettle the conflict-impacted North East region.

‘‘I was very pleased to hear
about the positive experiences these hard working and law abiding citizens are
having in their host communities. I also had the pleasure of meeting young
Chinese students learning three Nigerian languages.

‘‘We must continue to support
such exchange programmes to enhance our people-to-people contacts as easy
movement of citizens of both countries would complement the currency swap
agreements recently signed by the central banks of both countries.

‘‘Since our last meeting two
years ago, Nigeria has relaxed its visa requirements to Chinese citizens.
Today, I am pleased to inform Your Excellency that Chinese citizens receive
Nigerian visas in less than 48 hours.